Bubble Gum
by unfortunateforever
Summary: When Chase's bad habit of gnawing on pencils starts to get to House, he decides to give him something else to chew on. My first House fic. No slash, just a little fluff!


House furrowed his brow in annoyance as the end of the pencil snaked its way between Chase's teeth, whom preceded to grind his teeth into it. Everyday, no matter what, Chase could be found gnawing on a pencil. It was agitating, to say the least. All the pencils in the conference room had Chase's signature teeth marks embedded in them. House glared at Chase, who didn't seem to notice. _Note to self,_ House thought, _Keep Chase away from markers._

_Clack, clack, clack._

The room was filled with the sound of his teeth biting down onto the pencil. Doesn't he ever get tired of it? Don't his teeth ever start to hurt? Didn't he ever get splinters?

_Clack, clack._

House curled his fingers tightly around his cane. This had to stop.

"Chase!" he boomed suddenly. The sound of his voice was so loud that it startled everyone, including Chase, who's reaction was to let his jaw drop and let the pencil fall to the floor.

House shook his hands angrily. "For God's sake," he continued loudly, "would you please stop defacing our pencils? You devour what, one a day? I'm surprised you haven't destroyed a whole rainforest yet!"

Chase stared at in boss with wide, innocent eyes. He cleared his throat nervously. "Um. it's a bad habit?" he offered. House scoffed. "Yeah right." Suddenly, an imaginary light bulb went off. House stood up and quickly limped out of the room, and headed towards the lobby.

"Where's he going?" Cameron wondered.

Chase frowned. "Should I be scared?" he asked timidly.

Foreman smiled faintly. "Maybe." he replied.

Chase glanced down at the pencil he'd abandoned but he didn't dare pick it up, out of fear his boss would storm back in and catch him with the thing.

House came back in just then and dropped a pink gum ball wrapped in plastic on the table in front of Chase.

"If you feel the urge to chew, try something that was actually meant to be in your mouth." House growled.

Chase's eyes flicked down to the gum. Slowly he picked it up and was about to unwrap it when a thought raced through his head. What if House was trying to _poison_ him? He snuck a peek at House, who he half-expected to be rubbing his hands together and laughing evilly as Chase fell for his plan. But House was ignoring him so he figured the idea was ridiculous. He tore off the wrapper and popped the gum into his mouth. Chewing it, he realized gum was a lot better than a pencil. House was right...as usual.

Stepping up to the front of the room, House looked at his ducklings. "Now that our pencil crisis is solved, can we get back to work? I heard there are people dying."

A few days later, Chase and Foreman were making their way through the lobby when Cameron rushed by them. The two men exchanged glances, then Foreman said "Hey, slow down. What's going on?"

Cameron glanced over her shoulder. "House said he needed my help urgently." She shrugged and kept going. Chase and Foreman filed into line behind her. On the way past the main desk, Chase paused for a few seconds to dig into the gum ball basket and stuff a handful into his lab coat pocket.

House smirked as he saw the ducklings come into the conference room. "What took you so long? I was lonely in here." he whimpered, his face plastered with mock sadness. Cameron sat down in a chair. "What do you need help with?" she asked. House shrugged. "Nothing." Cameron couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed.

House picked up is cane and tapped it on his white board. It read "Stomach pain, numbness in hands, high BP, seizure." in bright green letters. "These are the symptoms. What is the diagnosis?" he said.

Nobody answered him. House sighed deeply. "How about we make this a game? You have 3 minutes to write down as many ideas as you can for what could be causing the symptoms. 'Kay?"

Chase peeled the plastic off a blue gum ball and put it in his mouth. He chewed for a minute. "That's not much of a game." he finally said.

Foreman laughed. "How much gum you got in there?"

Chase held up 5 fingers then raised his eyebrows up and down a few times.

"Onyourmarkgetsetgo!" House said it all as one word.

Clicking his pen, Foreman started to write at a leisurely pace while Cameron was feverishly jotting down her ideas, as if her life depended on it. Chase wrote down a sentence then sat back and thought deeply. The room was silent. And then it started.

_Smack, smack, pop, smack._

House narrowed his eyes. What was that sound? It was loud, yet nobody but him seemed to notice. He looked accusingly at the people before him before realizing it could only be Chase, who was now addicted to gum.

Chase smacked his gum noisily in his mouth and every once in awhile, there'd be a tiny popping sound. House rolled his eyes. Not this again.

He got up slowly and made his way over to Cameron. He glanced down at her paper, then patted her lightly on the head. Her eyes widened and she looked over at Foreman. House was now standing behind him. Leaning over, he made a good show of reading his ideas. When House stood back up, Foreman returned Cameron's look. What the hell was that? House's behavior was making him nervous.

Finally, House stood behind Chase, who continued to chew frantically. He didn't even hear House come up behind him until it was too late. Slapping him on the back, House exclaimed gleefully "Good job, Chase!" The sudden gesture caused Chase to drop his pen, which rolled across the table and onto the floor. He choked on his wad of gum, coughing like mad, until he eventually caught his breath. Red-faced, he glared up at House. "What the hell was that for?" he growled.

House reached into his pants pocket and withdrew a pencil, which already contained the infamous teeth marks. Handing it to Chase, who took it without saying a word, House smiled and simply said "Enjoy."


End file.
